Are highs and lows all the same?

For me the simple answer is no. For example a high from not having enough insulin, so under bolusing, is completely different to having no insulin at all and going high. I sit here this morning after having a BSL rise gradually the night before due to a poor insertion site. It was one of the ones that when you take the cannula out it bleeds for at least 5 minutes but I was lucky that it didn't squirt all over the poor like the last one of these. Basically this is just putting a stop to the insulin observing into the body through the normal tissue. As it was a gradual rise I was still getting some but not all that I needed. After a manual injection and changing the line and site I steadily watched the BSL lower to an acceptable range and so off to bed I went.

What I didn't know was that the new line I inserted had an even worse fault. Where the line connects to the cannula site, where you disconnect for showering or swimming, was loose. Usually it locks into place softly so that the connection for the insulin to flow through is secure. What must have happened is that when I first inserted everything was in alignment but then while in bed and as I moved the alignment was moved hence the starvation of insulin. Waking up and having no insulin for 4 hours is hell for me. My heart is racing, I have laboured breathing as it actually hurts my lungs, every muscle in my body is cramping and my blood feels like mud. This is what I call waking up on the wrong side of the bed.

Luckily I caught it and my BSL is only 14.6 and my eye sight isn't effected. A 14.6 for over eating I would have the thick blood but I wouldn't have the heart racing, laboured breathing and the muscle cramps. Don't get me wrong both feel like crap and I never want them but being with out insulin for me now is an impossibility. Someone asked me the other day how long I think I would last if I didn't have insulin and sitting here right now feeling the way I do I would think after 12 hours at a maximum I would be in a serious state in hospital. It is scary to think that a small amount of a hormone that the majority of the world takes for granted keeps us alive and we have a dependence that causes us to be in serious trouble in only hours of not having it.

I find it the same for lows. There are lows for excercise and there are lows for too much insulin. Whether it is a basal rate that is too high or you have over shot on a Bolus shot then they have too different feelings attached to them. Excercise lows I can deal with because I suppose you are not overdosing on insulin your just using your stores of glucose and energy which need to be replenished. A low from over dose sees there being too much insulin on board and it looking for what ever it can to do its job.

So to answer my first question for me not all highs and lows are the same. Different scenarios will have different reactions and when it comes down to it different emotional responses. Just because we need more to take into the day.